


A Permanent Home

by missreadandwrite



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Descriptions Mostly, Foster Care, Sweet, This will probably turn into a multi fic thing, more characters to come later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missreadandwrite/pseuds/missreadandwrite
Summary: A look inside the mismatched Larkin home.





	1. A Permanent Home

The house doesn’t look like anything particularly special or remarkable from the outside. It looks like many of the others around it. Neatly kept and neutrally painted, it blends in seamlessly and gives off the same safe and put together vibes as every other home in the neighborhood. It isn’t until you step inside that you see the variations in the type of home it is.

There are pictures everywhere. Some are taped to the wall with colored tape, others with scotch tape, and some are hung in frames. This isn’t what makes the home different, though. The difference is that the pictures in the frames are all drawings. Some of them appear to be drawn by a small child, scribbles covering random splotches of the paper with large happy stick figures placed sporadically throughout the scribbles. Others appear to be drawn by a steadier hand. These pictures vary in content, some are beautiful and bright and depict happy moments, and others are dull and emotional, but still beautiful.

Not as large in quantity as the pictures but still plentiful in the entryway are the pairs of shoes. Some are placed in an organized row against the wall by the door, but most are piled together by the entrance to the kitchen. The kitchen has papers covering every counter but one. This one counter is the ‘cooking counter’ and the house law is that papers and miscellaneous items can be placed anywhere but on this counter. The pantry is a hodgepodge of food. There are baskets with family members names and their specific snacks from the store, and there’s the free-for-all bin, where anyone can help themselves. The pictures from the entryway seem to carry through to this room, where the walls are painted a calm sea-green and the dark cabinets have tiny nicks in them from constant use.

The living room is colorful. It’s bright but homey, with large two large navy blue couches perpendicular to one another and an equally blue loveseat diagonal to the television. The wood floors are covered in an orange and white decorative rug, and if you look close enough there are what appear to be coffee stains on the rug close to the couch, and bright red stains, possibly from some hot cheetos, closer to the television. There are little love marks on every piece of furniture and decor in the room, from the slightly rumpled couches to the height measurements lining the wall next to the window.

The last room on the first floor of the house is a bedroom and its adjoining bathroom, both colored with light pink walls and a grey rug. The pink walls are covered in even more pictures than the entryway, though almost every photo and piece of art is in a frame. The bed is meticulously made each day and the number of decorative pillows is limited to three, unlike other bedrooms in the house. Perhaps the only thing in the room that would strike a second look is on the door, where a hand-painted sign reads ‘Come and stay as long as you need’.

Moving up the stairs leads you to five other doors. The one straight forward from the stairs is an organized yet chaotic bathroom filled with bathroom supplies for five. There are two combs, one red and one purple and both are hung on colored hooks on the wall. The third hook holds a bright yellow brush that almost blends in with the walls. There are five towel hooks on the back of the door, and three of them have towels hung on them. Those towels are colored the same as the combs and brushes and the red one is just barely hanging on while a blue towel has fallen to the floor. Five different toothbrushes sit in a cup, though not color coded with the towels and combs. Along with five different toothbrushes lie three different toothpaste tubes, each a different brand. The only decoration on the walls is a single sign reading ‘Your mess is yours to clean up’. 

The first bedroom off of the stairs is painted mostly grey, but has randomly colored paint splotches on each wall. An easel lies in the corner by the window, and there are six canvases leaned against the wall with the seventh balanced precariously on the easel. Sketch pads litter the small desk in the corner and a backpack is placed on a small stack of textbooks next to the door. The fan is spinning on high, and the bed is hastily made. The sign on the door reads ‘Jack’.

Immediately across from this room is a light blue covered room with dark grey blackout curtains preventing the entrance of any outside light. This room is more organized than the previous, and instead of artwork lying around and an easel in the corner, there are video game cases stacked on bookshelves against the walls and a television placed atop the dresser in the corner. The comforter on the bed is white, and covering sixty percent of the mattress are decorative pillows with a variety of patterns and colors. The desk by the door has a lamp and a laptop placed on it, and a backpack is hanging off of the grey desk chair. Above the bed are wooden letters painted by Jack that spell out ‘Anthony’.

The room next to the previous room has two beds in it, one covered in exclusively yellow blankets and the other in red. The red-blanketed bed has just one pillow and a white teddy bear, and the yellow blanketed bed has three pillows and an extra fluffy bunny stuffed animal. On the floor of the closet sit two bean bags, both covered in marker stains and well used. The walls of the closet are covered in six year old artwork, some of castles and various animals, while others are drawings of different families. This bedroom door is covered in marker stains just as the bean bags are, and also has letters cut from construction paper to form ‘Romeo and Crutchie: Super Secret Spies’.

The fourth room is mostly empty. It has a bed and a desk, both mostly neat. There’s a small black bookshelf in the corner with a variety of mystery books on it, most of which are filled with sticky notes and hastily scrawled notes. The bed has two pillows on it, one black and one white, and a black blanket is thrown across the end of the bed. The only thing on the desk is a laptop and its charger, and the door has no name on it yet. The room itself has only been occupied now for a few hours, and Spot hasn’t got around to unpacking yet. He isn’t yet sure if this will be a permanent home.


	2. Mac and Cheese

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Cheese is a crucial key to relationships, wouldn't you agree?

Jack first met Medda five years ago when he was twelve. He had a behavior problem and only liked to talk with short, sarcastic sentences, but Medda still took him in. She slept maybe fours hours a day when he initially moved in, constantly being awoken by his nightmares and his attempts at sneaking out. Jack was easily scared by certain loud noises and he despised being snuck up on, but things slowly got better. At least, Jack thought they got better.

Three months after he moved in, another boy moved in. His name was Anthony and he was ten. Anthony liked video games and riding bikes and cooking, but Anthony didn’t like to spend time with Jack. Medda began spending more time with Anthony, helping him find new recipes for them to try and helping him find new video games to add to his collection, and Jack began to change his behavior. He started cleaning his room more and avoiding making messes and he stopped going to Medda when he had nightmares. 

Two weeks after Anthony moved in Medda sat down with Jack. She had asked him how he was doing, and if he was okay. She explained that she had noticed his changed behavior and wasn’t sure if something had happened to spur this change. He had tried to hide his nerves, subtly wiping his sweaty palms on his pants and tried to limit his fidgeting, but she noticed. When Jack didn’t say anything, she caught his eye and asked once more if he was alright. He broke down and started crying almost immediately, frantically repeating that he would behave and that he didn’t want to leave because Anthony had moved in, that he could help clean and do other chores and that he would stay out of Anthony’s way as long as he could stay.

Medda had been quick to gather him into her arms and rock him gently, letting him cry it out. It had taken a while, but after waiting for him to settle down she grabbed his attention, sternly yet affectionately telling him that he wasn’t going anywhere. She apologized for not explaining Anthony’s arrival to him, for not telling him that she had been looking for other boys to foster so he wasn’t alone and that she had been planning on expanding their small family for a few months. The relief that swept through Jacks body was overwhelming but welcomed, and the atmosphere in the house changed almost immediately. 

Anthony and Jack became inseparable and Anthony quickly became ‘Race’ while Jack adamantly fought being called Jackie. Race started dancing and Jack started painting and the two supported the others activities every chance they had. 

Three years later and the Larkin house is joined by two more boys, twins, who in the first week there only say the words “Mac and Cheese” to everyone. While the words are thought to represent only a meal, Jack is quick to learn that Mac and Cheese roughly translates to I love you after the twins repeat the words and hug everyone in the house. Race spends a month coming up with and searching various mac and cheese recipes before he finally catches on, much to the delight of the twins. It takes Medda another month to successfully get Charlie and Romeo to not ask for mac and cheese for every meal.

Fast forward another two years and a lot has changed. Jack has just finished his junior year of high school, and Race is finished with his sophomore year and counting the days until his sixteenth birthday. Charlie has insisted on being called Crutchie after a bus crash on the way to school left his leg mangled and introduced the support crutch into his life. For a six year old, he has handled the trauma quite well, although Romeo still has nightmares and clings to Crutchie almost 24/7. 

\---------------

Spots first impression of his new home is that it’s chaotic. Medda had warned him that there were already four rambunctious boys living under her roof, but event that description feels vastly understated. For one, the amount of noise coming from the living room alone suggests a larger quantity of people. Spot confirms this suspicion by peering into the living room and counting eight heads, already more than he expected. As he absently listens to Medda explain how to get to his room, two young boys rush the entryway and almost slam into both himself and Medda. 

The blonde, who is supporting himself with a crutch, grins at Spot and Medda before shouting “Mac and Cheese!” The brunet immediately rushes into Spot to give him a hug, failing to notice the tensing of Spots shoulders before repeating the action with Medda. Then, the two young boys lock eyes, grin, and dart away.

Glancing at Medda, Spot raises his eyebrows. She grins back at him and offers no explanation as to what just happened, and instead motions him into the living room.

Entering the living room feels how Spot imagines a celebrity would feel walking into a crowded room. The two girls and six boys in the room immediately stop their conversations and stare at Spot, not one word being uttered. The room feels uncomfortably tense until Medda steps in and reprimands each one of the teenagers sitting in the room.

“Jack Kelly I know for sure I raised you with more manners than this. Oh don’t you snicker at that Anthony, you know just as well as he does that there are expectations in this house. And the rest of you, I'm sure your parents taught you manners based on the ones I receive”. The glare that Medda feeds the two boys makes even Spot squirm uncomfortably, and he quickly identifies his two new housemates. 

Jack is squished on the loveseat, practically in the lap of a brunet wearing glasses, and had been resting his feet in the lap of a guy with curly brown hair. Race, on the other hand, was laying upside down half off one of the couches, shoulder to shoulder with a boy whose bright red hair contrasted the dark navy of the couch. Another glance towards Race revealed that the two aforementioned boys had their hands linked, and both wore matching bracelets on their wrists.

The other couch houses the last remaining boy and the only two girls. The girls are sat close together, and the girl with red hair is braiding the others as if there was no lecture currently occurring. The girl whose hair is being braided is messing with the last boys hair, who gives the occasional wince when her ring gets caught on a knot in his hair.

Despite the reprimand from Medda, neither Jack nor Race end up making the first move to introduce themselves. Instead, the last boy Spot observes shoots up off the couch and offers his hand to Spot. 

“I’m Elmer. Yes, like the glue, and no, if you touch my hand you won’t be stuck to me forever.”

Spot meets his eyes before slowly raising his hand to meet Elmer’s, simply nodding in greeting.

“Uh, sorry, don’t you have a name?”

Quickly grabbing his hand back from Elmer’s, Spot nods again, “Yeah, yeah sorry I um my name is Sean but everyone calls me Spot.”

There’s silence in the room before Race lets out a loud whoop, “That’s another member of the nickname squad! We are officially up to five now.” The red head next to Race winces at the volume of Race’s voice in his ear, quickly sitting up and shoving Race fully off the couch. “You nimrod, you can’t yell like that when you’re that close to my ear. You’re supposed to know this by now, loud noises like that hurt when I’m wearing my hearing aids!”

Spot watches their small argument with vague interest, before one of the girls catches his attention. “Hi, Spot, my name is Katherine and this lovely lady is Sarah. You’ve probably already figured out which one Race is, next to him is Albert, his boyfriend. Jack is sitting on top of Davey, Sarah's brother and practically Jacks boyfriend. Finch is sat next to those two, poor guy, and of course Elmer already introduced himself.”

Spots eyes dart around the room to put faces to the names Katherine is spewing out before nodding and waving to her. Race and Albert are still arguing, though now it has transferred into sign language and Katherine and Sarah have gone back to messing with each others hair. Jack is fiddling with his fingers but nods in greeting to Spot when they lock eyes, and then Spot is pulled into a game of Mario Kart with Finch, Elmer, and Davey. 

It’s only a few minutes later when Medda calls everyone to grab pizza from the kitchen, and as the house dissolves into chaos, Spot lingers behind and observes the mad rush for a moment. He somehow misses Elmer lingering as well until he is startled by Elmer asking if he’s okay.

“Oh, yeah I’m good, it’s just a lot to take in at once.”

Laughing, Elmer agrees before grabbing Spots right hand and tugging him deeper into the kitchen. “C’mon, if you don’t grab food now there won’t be any left, they’re all monsters when it comes to food.”

At the exact moment that everyone has a plate of food, Medda announces that Romeo is calling dinner. No one else in the room reacts strangely to this statement, and Spot notices that no one has started eating yet. While he begins to try and discern what calling dinner means, the young brunet from earlier stands on his chair at the table, looks around the room once, and yells “Mac and Cheese!”

Everyone then smiles and shouts “Mac and Cheese” before promptly digging in to the food on their plates, and Spot takes a moment to look around and try to understand what happened. Elmer must notice his puzzled look because he nudges him gently in the side, gaining his attention before whispering “You’ll figure it out, just give it time”. 

And Spot looks around once more before affirming in his mind that he’ll figure it out, after all, there are much worse places he could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I know I went AFK for awhile but I am back and will hopefully be posting regularly. I finally moved away for school and am now beginning my junior year at college! It's definitely exciting but simultaneously terrifying and I'm hoping to have more time to write now that I'm not working while attending school. See you in the next one!   
> -A

**Author's Note:**

> This was incredibly fun to write and think up in my head and I hope you enjoy it! This will also probably be the start of a new collection but I'm not 100% sure yet. Thanks for reading! -A


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